


On the Other Side of the Wall

by ayebibs



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Dirty Concept Pure Execution, Getting Together, M/M, Pining, Some Cursing, bed sharing, there's no explicit sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 15:18:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15866283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ayebibs/pseuds/ayebibs
Summary: When Keith returns to university after taking a year off, he hopes for a quiet semester. Except that seems impossible when he hears his dorm neighbor having extremely loud sex next door.But for some reason, Keith only manages to be annoyed for a little bit before he develops a crush.





	On the Other Side of the Wall

Keith does his best to gently put down the box in his hands rather than just dropping it. No matter how strong he is, his body still feels sore from carrying all his heavy boxes from his car and up six flights of stairs. He couldn't believe that the elevator was out of order. He wouldn't be surprised if it was from all of the students moving in over the weekend. 

That's what he gets for moving in late.

At least this is the last box. He takes a moment to catch his breath, looking out onto the campus grounds. 

"Keith," Shiro places his hand on his shoulder, prompting him to end his long, empty stare out the window. "You'll be great."

"I'm not worried."

Keith turns to one of the packed boxes piled high on top of others. He slips his knife out of his pocket and moves to cut it open. With two fingers, Shiro plucks it out of his hands. "What have I told you about knives on campus?"

"It's for protection!" Keith protests.

"From sorority girls?"

"You say that like it's a joke." 

Shiro lets out a small laugh and hands him back the knife by the hilt. "I know it'll be weird being back, but I'm sure your mother is very proud of you."

"I was always going to come back," Keith says, "I just needed some time."

"I know," Shiro says warmly. “Do you need any help unpacking?”

“Nah, I should be fine.”

“Alright, then I guess I’ll go home and finish up my class’s syllabus. Remember, you’re always welcome at my apartment if you want a home cooked meal or you get lonely.”

“Okay, Dad,” Keith drones, but there’s a smile on his face when Shiro ruffles his hair and pulls him in for a hug. 

Closing the door behind Shiro as he exits, the empty dorm room immediately drops some anxiety into his mind. The dorm room is smaller than he remembers and maybe half the size of his room at his mother’s.

It’s weird. He’s known his mother for a total of two years, lived with her for one. He’s spent twenty years not even knowing his mother and now she’s such an irreplaceable part of his life that he misses her already. 

It makes him feel lame.

It takes him the entire afternoon and evening getting his room set up. It’s all about function in the tiny space, how he can fit all of his clothes in a tiny closet, the textbooks on his shelves, and where to put his mini fridge. He’s lucky that this time around he’s got a single and no roommate to complain about his early mornings and snoring. 

Which he does not do, for the record. 

It’s exhausting, but oddly satisfying.

He climbs up into his lofted bed, spreading out as much as he can on the narrow mattress. Normally, it takes him some time to fall asleep maybe after some fiddling on his phone and listening to a few songs. Tonight, his blinking slows to a stop minutes after his head hits the pillow. Even in the August heat, the dorm air conditioning has it a comfortable, cool temperature. Contrary to his memory, the dorm is surprisingly quiet… The perfect conditions to fall asleep. 

And that’s exactly what he does.

“Ah!”

Keith bolts straight up. Well, it was a good five minutes, anyway. 

Maybe it’s just his paranoia, but he freezes, listening carefully to see if someone was in trouble. If maybe his knife would come in handy. He waits for a moment or two, before he decides that it’s probably some underclassmen stumbling back into the dorms after a welcome back party.

Keith jumps again when a loud thump comes from the wall on the other side of his room. He sits up and listens again. The first sound is followed by several more just like it. Keith furrows his brows, unable to decipher it until new sounds carry through the thin dorm walls. 

No. Keith thinks, his body tensing. No, no, no. This cannot be happening on his first night back to university. He covers his face and tries to wish it away as a man’s moans invade his ears. 

“Oh my God!” he hears from the adjacent dorm room followed by giggles and moans. His face heats. He’s heard horror stories of people having sex inconspicuously in dorm rooms, but he’s never experienced it until now. 

Keith flops back down on to the bed and covers his ears with his hands. He wonders if anyone else can hear the escapades of the room next to him. He realizes that it’s the last dorm in the hall and he’s the only neighbor… which means that no one else is going to complain. If he was less prone to aggression, he would be marching up to the dorm himself and pounding on the door right now. 

The optimistic part of him hopes that it’ll end soon, but minutes later the people on the other side of the wall show no signs of giving up. Keith’s face is so hot, he’s sure he could warm the entire dorm if this kept up. He grabs his pillow and folds it around his head to block out the noise, but the thumping and vibration of the thin dorm walls persists. 

He tries earplugs, headphones blaring obnoxiously loud music, and earplugs with music, but nothing keeps the disgustingly lewd sounds from his ears and Keith could not be more pissed. 

Who has this much sex before the first day of classes? Who starts off the semester like this? 

Keith is nearly tearing his hair out. He’s thrown pillows against the wall and banged his fist against it, but none of his efforts are fruitful. His attempts end with him staring at his ceiling, the pornographic soundtrack continuing in the next room. 

He knows he could probably spend the night at Shiro’s, but it feels like giving up and if there’s anything that can trump his discomfort, it’s his stubbornness.

But even Keith isn’t sure if his stubbornness will get him through the night.

* * *

As it turns out, Keith is more stubborn than he gives himself credit for. He doesn't know when he finally drifted off the night before, whether the nymphomaniacs on the other side of the wall called it quits or if he finally fell asleep. All he knows is that he's tired as hell when he wakes up, even more so than he should be for waking up for a class at eight in the morning. Splashing cold water on his face and taking a chilly shower doesn't do anything to improve his mood, it just makes him even more pissed at the people in the other room. 

He shakes his head as he exits his room and enters the hallway of the dorm. 

Whatever. He wasn't going to let one shitty night color the rest of his day.

And then it happens as Keith is locking the door behind him.

The door to the room next to him opens. 

A guy steps out, not paying attention to Keith's staring, fiddling on his phone and fixing the back of his shoe as he comes into view. Keith is sure that his mouth is hanging open as this guy goes about his business. When he turns to him, the asshole has the nerve to smile at him.

"Hey!" he waves at him and Keith has to swallow his aggression. "Did you just move into the dorm I didn't-" The guy's words trail off as he begins to understand that Keith's glare isn't just because he's tired. It's directed at him. "Dude, what's your problem?"

"What's my problem?" Keith opens his mouth, lets out an incredulous laugh, takes a breath, and tries again. "What do you think my problem is?"

"Um...?" The guy looks utterly confused. "That you're not a morning person?"

“Ugh.” Keith rolls his eyes.

“Whatever, man,” the guy says, passing him in the hallway. “You don’t have to be rude just because you woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

Woke up on the wrong side of the bed? Keith stares at him as he heads for the stairs. Yeah, that was it, not at all like the sound of his bed frame knocking against his wall for an indeterminate amount of time kept him up all night. He shakes his head and follows Lance down the stairs. 

Keith could be imagining things, but that guy seems to be heading in the same direction… and walking even faster than he was before. 

“Stop following me!” the guy throws over his shoulder.

“I’m not following you!” Keith bites back. 

“Then why have you been five steps behind me for half the campus?”

“I’m… going to class?” Keith groans and speeds up.

“What are you doing?”

“Walking in front of you so you know I’m not following you. Why are you walking faster?”

He only grunts and suddenly Keith finds himself in a race to his class. As it turns out, they were heading to the same place and despite their speed, they enter into a completely full classroom. For a moment, the boys forget about their short race and stare dumbly into the lecture room. Despite their haste to get there, the room is completely full. Keith's focus zeroes into the three people waving over the man next to him and then immediately to the fact that there are only two empty seats.

Damnit. There was no way that this semester was going to go smoothly for him was there?

"I told you to stop following me," he repeats.

"I'm not following you. Out of the hundred seats in this lecture room, there are two open."

"Sit in the aisle then." 

"That's what I'm trying to avoid," Keith hisses back. 

They have to awkwardly wiggle past the students closer to the aisle to get to the empty seats.

"Hey, Lance!" The smallest of the people who were waving him over greets. She doesn't look old enough to be in this class... more like a high school senior. "I texted you to wake up early this morning. Classes are always packed the first day! Even the ones at eight in the morning."

“I was really busy last night and didn’t end up going to sleep until late.” Keith rolled his eyes to himself. 

That was one way to put it. 

"Well, they'll fizzle out next week when no one wants to wake up at seven to get here."

"Oh, please, like anyone here will be waking up any earlier than fifteen minutes before this class," the small girl says again.

"Although, seeing Lance in his robe and kitty slippers again would be a treat," the last friend says in an English accent. 

"Who's your friend?"

"He is not my friend," Lance says seriously. "He just lives next to me in the dorms." Keith only rolls his eyes again as he slips his laptop out of his bag. The three college kids look at each other tentatively before sending him friendly smiles.

"What's your name? I'm Katie, but I prefer Pidge."

"And I'm Hunk."

"You can call me Allura."

"Traitors," Lance gasps, "all of you."

"And this is Lance," Hunk says, placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder. He just huffs and looks away.

Keith blinks at the four of them. This would be his fourth year in university and he's never met any people that were this friendly at the beginning of an upper-division class, much less when they had their own friend group or when the lecture hall was this big. Hell, Keith doesn't even remember introducing himself to people he did group projects with. Those kids had straight to the point epithets like, "nose piercing" or "blue hair," in his phone or had phone numbers unattached to a contact. 

"K-Keith." He's a little embarrassed about how uncertain he sounds, as if he doesn’t know his own name.

"Cool. Have you ever taken a class with Iverson before? I heard this class is hell."

"Um..." Keith begins awkwardly, "actually, I've taken this class already."

"Oh..." Pidge says uncomfortably.

"I didn't fail it," he says quickly. "I mean, I've taken part of it... and then I took some time off of school."

For some reason, this seems to excite the other three.

"Does that mean that you've taken some of the exams?" Hunk asks.

"Uh, yeah, all but the final."

Pidge reaches across an indignant Lance and places her hand on his shoulder. "I think we're going to be good friends."

Lance's jaw drops as Keith blinks at the phones being piled on to his desk. 

"Would you mind trading numbers? In case we have any questions?" Allura asks.

"You all get straight As!" Lance yells, lowering his volume when other students turn to look at him. "Why would you need this Mullet's help?"

"Mullet?" Keith echoes, touching his hair self-consciously as the other four argue.

"Better safe than sorry Lance!" Allura says. 

"Plus, don't think of this as a one-way deal," Hunk says. "We can pay you in pizza and home-cooked meals!"

"Hunk is a great cook!"

"Exactly," Allura chimes in. "The food that you have here is abysmal. I don't know how anyone could survive without Hunk's cooking."

"Ramen," Keith answers. "Lots of it."

"I remember those days," Allura laughs.

"I can't believe you all." Lance shakes his head. "Adopting the enemy like this? Ridiculous."

"Oh, come on, Lance," Hunk says placing a hand on his shoulder. "What's your beef anyway?"

"Well, he-"

Iverson walks into the lecture room and the horde of students quiets down. Lance pouts at the missed opportunity to say how rude Keith was to him this morning but manages to give him a short glare before turning his attention back to the center of the classroom. 

For some reason, Keith feels like this is going to be a long semester.

* * *

In the next few nights, Keith is able to catch up on his sleep. Then, he's able to go right back into his early morning routine of an early gym trip before his morning classes. As he walks to the gym, he thinks back to his first morning. One noisy night out of a few quiet ones wasn't really something to complain about if he was being honest. He's faced with the possibility that he might have been a little too hard on Lance at their first meeting. He sighs to himself, well, he'll try to be a bit more cordial to him in the coming days. Maybe he'd dig up some of his old study guides and give them to him and his friends as a peace offering?

Keith is so deep in thought that he doesn't even realize that he's walking straight into someone else. When he collides he's quick to mumble a sorry, but when his gaze lifts, he finds himself face to face with the person that he was thinking about to begin with. 

"You again?" Lance asks, rolling his eyes. "Did you follow me here again?"

"What do you mean again?" Keith meant to be less antagonistic after he was so rude to Lance the first time around, but there's just something about Lance that turns on his fight or flight response. And Keith doesn't do flight. "We were going to the same classroom! This is the only gym on campus."

"Whatever," Lance huffs and heads in the opposite direction of him. 

Keith wonders if he's made himself a new enemy. It certainly wouldn't have been the first time that he has. At least, Lance was heading towards the weights, Keith wanted to start with cardio anyway. It's been a while since he's done any endurance training on a treadmill. 

Only, after Keith places all of his stuff in a locker and heads to the treadmills, he finds that Lance follows right after him. It being six in the morning, there aren't many people in the gym. At most it's Lance, him, and maybe five other people. College campuses didn't often lend themselves to gym goers this early in the morning. That being said, there was absolutely no reason that Lance would choose a treadmill directly next to his. 

Keith gives him the benefit of the doubt, even though he's really one of those people who live by the “use one machine away in an empty gym” rule. He starts his treadmill at a brisk walking speed and doesn't think much of it until he hears the familiar beeping of the speed being ramped up. 

He looks over just briefly enough to notice that Lance is going a fifth of a mile faster than him per hour. 

Now, this isn't Keith's first rodeo, he's come across other competitive people at the gym before. He's well aware that most of the time, he's the victor. He doesn't need cheap competition to tell him that he's more physically fit than ninety percent of the general public. Shiro's also warned him about getting into small gym bouts, as he puts it, Keith might be strong, but he's only so big in comparison to some of the two to three hundred pound lift addicts that spend half their day at the gym. 

Squaring Lance up, he's sure they'd be in the same weight class.

That's not the point, the rational part of him argues. 

It's too late. Keith is smashing the speed button, increasing his brisk walking speed to a jog. He doesn't know whether the irrational part of him is reminding him that the year he spent with his mother he went to the gym a little less and that, maybe, he has something to prove... or whether it's just something about Lance that just gets him all riled up. 

He forgets about it as soon as he watches Lance increase his speed and then his fingers are right over the button again. They keep going like this until the speed is maxed out and then it becomes a matter of endurance. Well, that was what Keith wanted to practice anyway... but he was more than positive that there was no way that he could keep a twelve mile per hour speed for much longer than a few minutes. Two minutes in and his lungs already burn, he's never ran at this speed for an extended amount of time.

Hell, even in high school, he ran a seven-minute mile, not a five-minute one. 

Looking over to Lance, he expects to find him in an equal amount of anguish, but Lance seems to be keeping up just fine with the pace. So fine that Lance has no problem smirking over at him.

Keith lasts another few minutes of pain in his chest before he slows the speed to a brisk jog and then finally to a stop. He has to rest his hands on his knees to catch his breath. Next to him, Lance slows his pace to ten miles an hour, but he's still going strong. Lance might as well be laughing in Keith's face with the annoying smirk on his face. 

Of course, the time that he decides to take up a challenge in the gym after ages it's on a treadmill against a runner. Keith should've known just by looking at his physique, lean with those legs. Sour grapes, Shiro would tease him if he was here, but since he wasn't, Keith would let himself keep his excuses. 

He gets off the treadmill and, after wiping down where his sweaty hands were, heads to the weights. After his time with his mother, he doesn’t have the physique that he used to, but he's still got some of his strength. 

Keith isn't sure why he's surprised when he sees that Lance is sauntering over to the weights. It's like this guy wants to start a fight with him. 

Lance goes for the heavier weights and Keith can't help but eye him. 

"You're not going to have a spotter?" He calls across the mostly empty gym.

"Don't need one."

"That's never ended well," he informs him. Maybe Lance annoys him, but that doesn’t mean that he wants to see him crush his windpipe trying to bench press his weight just to show off. 

"Shove it," Lance says and Keith rolls his eyes. He's going to give himself a headache if he keeps doing that. 

Keith can't help but keep an eye on Lance as he bench presses the weights. To Lance's credit he does fairly well for the first few reps. Then, halfway in, Keith can see the telltale signs of fatigue. Lance's arms tremble slightly and Keith's heart is already thumping wildly in his chest. Then, on what Keith would assume is Lance's last rep, Lance can't seem to get the weights high enough.

Keith's adrenaline skyrockets as he drops the dumbbells in his hands, another poor choice that they've made today considering he could have lost one of his toes, but Lance is more important. He's behind Lance's head in a second, helping him rerack the heavy weight. 

"Are you okay?" Keith breathes, when his fear settles.

Lance sits up and glares at him and Keith is immediately confused. 

"The safety pins would have caught it," Lance says, tapping the ones next to the bench. 

"Oh," Keith says, cheeks heating and looking away uncomfortably. 

“I’m not an idiot.”

Keith opens his mouth to retaliate, but for once, he takes a second to look over Lance. Lance's face is flushed and not just from the overexertion. His hands are trembling and when he notices that Keith is staring at them, he presses them against the tops of his thighs. Keith figures that even knowing that the bar would be caught by the safety pins, Lance had a genuine moment of fear.

Keith doesn't say anything for a moment, he's nervous that he'll say something to offend him. He's not always the best at words.

"I don't think you're an idiot," he decides on and goes back to what he was doing. Lance leaves the lifting area and Keith doesn't see him for the rest of his workout. 

He does see him in the locker room, after he's taken a shower and he's drying off his hair on a bench. Of course, Keith thinks, when he sees him, he's chosen a locker right by his. Lance doesn't say anything when he first walks in. He's also fresh out the shower, towel wrapped around his waist and drying off.

Keith averts his eyes out of politeness, it's weird to stare at other people in a locker room, but when he glances back to see if he can figure out whether Lance is okay, he finds his eyes lingering. For the last couple of days he's been wondering why anyone would want to sleep with Lance, it's more than obvious now. Keith literally chokes on the thought and averts his gaze in a moment of panic when Lance turns to glare at him.

"Thanks," Lance spits out, throwing a t-shirt over his head. His face is a little softer than before.

"I thought you said the safety pins would catch it." 

Why can't he just learn to take the thanks?

"It would have," Lance says pointedly, "... but thanks anyway." Lance’s bitter expressions yield a small smile for just a second.

“Anytime,” Keith says immediately, only realizing that it sounds a little too familiar, before nervously shoving his stuff into his backpack and heading for the exit. “See you in class!” he mumbles quickly and hightails it out of there, leaving Lance blinking after him.

* * *

Keith didn’t actually expect to hear from Pidge. The introduction was surprising alone, actually contacting him would be even stranger. So, when he gets a text from Pidge asking him to join them in the library for a study session, he's bewildered. 

He contemplates telling them no and making up a fake story about how he has another class or has some club obligation, but in the back of his mind he remembers Shiro telling him that he should go out and have fun with people his own age. 

Make friends. 

Remembering one of his lectures, makes him pout, but in the end, he knows Shiro's advice has never failed him.

When he gets to the library, Pidge, Hunk, Allura, and Lance are at a booth, study materials, snacks, and drinks spread out across it. When Hunk notices him, he waves him over and even though Keith knows that he’s waving at him, out of habit, he looks behind him. Not embarrassing at all.

“Hey, buddy!” Hunk greets warmly. 

“Ah, man!” Lance groans. “You guys really invited this guy?”

“Fine. I’ll take my study guide for the first exam and go.”

Lance flinches, “Ah, ah, ah! I’m just kidding Keith. You’re always welcome here.”

“Convincing.”

“Any allergies?” Hunk asks suddenly.

Keith turns to inquire about the strange question, but finds himself staring at tupperware filled to the brim with cookies. He opens his mouth and begins to utter what sounds like a polite refusal, but the way that the other four are looking at him makes him clear his throat and take one. He takes a tentative bite as they watch him. If he wasn’t so busy chewing, his jaw would have dropped.

The cookie was the perfect texture, crunchy with just a little bit of chew. It was sweet without being overpowering. He wouldn’t tell Shiro, but this was definitely the best cookie he’s ever had.

As Keith snacks on the food Hunk brought, he watches as Lance studies. He seems fine at first, but then his eyebrows knit together. Lance’s expressions are so animated that it's kind of amusing to see him tap the pencil against his cheek and bite his lip as he tries to figure out whatever is on the laptop screen in front of him.

Almost cute.

Or, cute enough to make Keith’s lips turn up at the corners.

“What are you studying?”

Lance stops what he’s doing to look at Keith with squinted eyes.

“Why?”

“You look stuck.” It isn’t meant as insulting, but Lance looks like Keith has just thrown a drink in his face.

“I can manage!”

“As long as you can keep yourself from flirting with the TA,” Pidge says. “If you can’t then you’re definitely screwed.”

“What are you talking about?” Keith asks. 

“Ugh, you bring this up all the time!” Lance groans. “You don’t need to tell him.”

“So, last semester,” Pidge begins.

“You’re the worst,” Lance grumbles.

“I’m the best,” she quips back and then continues on with her story. “So, Lance was flirting with our lab TA, but Lance hits on anything that moves, so that’s really nothing new.”

“I do not hit on anything that moves,” Lance interjects.

“Lance, we’ve known each other for three years and you only stopped flirting with me six months ago,” Allura laughs.

“That doesn’t mean that I’ll just flirt with anyone!”

“Anyway, the TA was super nice to him the entire semester until Lance accidentally offended her. He said something about her hair and she was super sensitive about it. So, after that, she didn’t want to look at him for the rest of the semester. Lance was so embarrassed that he never wanted to go to office hours and she hated him so much she graded him harder.”

“In his defense,” Hunk comes in as the voice of reason, “it’s so unfair that she gave him a lower grade because he said something mean about her hair.”

“I thought she was going for green!”

“Hunk has a point,” Keith tells Pidge.

“But you didn’t see how awkward Lance was.”

The story sounds a little ridiculous to Keith. On the night before the first day of the semester, he had a man screaming next door. How bad could Lance be at flirting if he had a boyfriend or, at the very least, friends with benefits?

He doesn’t mull it over for much longer. He’s there to study anyway. He pulls out his laptop and goes searching for his headphones. He digs inside his bag, reaching around to find them, but he comes up empty. After checking every pocket, he still can’t find them. It hits him suddenly that he’s left them on the desk in his room.

“Shit,” he mumbles to himself. He’s going to have to walk across campus to get them.

“What is it?” Hunk asks.

Keith sighs, “I was going to watch the video for class, but I left my headphones in my room.”

Lance looks up from his laptop, “The one that was just posted last night?”

“Yeah, why?”

Lance heaves a sigh and picks up his laptop. He moves over to Keith’s side of the booth. Keith blinks as Lance makes him scoot closer to Hunk. He places his laptop in front of them and hands him an earbud.

“Don’t say I’ve never done anything for you.”

Keith smirks as Lance starts the video. The split between the earbuds is so short that they have to sit shoulder to shoulder and Keith can smell the soft, clean scent of Lance’s cologne, but he doesn’t mind.

Maybe Lance isn’t so bad after all.

* * *

Keith takes it back two nights later as he hears the frame of the bed in the other room ram continuously against his. 

The next morning on his way to class, he runs into someone exiting Lance’s dorm. His eyes widen to find himself face to face with a handsome man, just a little bit taller than him. All last night he fantasized about yelling at Lance and his partner. The words escape him as he stands in the hallway and stares at the attractive man in front of him. His eyes are drawn to his mussed hair, the love bites running from just under his jaw and trailing down under his shirt and out of view. His anger fades then, replaced by a dull annoyance and an unpleasant feeling in his chest.

* * *

Keith doesn't really do bars. It’s mostly because he doesn't drink much and, in his mind, there are few other reasons to go to one besides that. Yet, after hanging out with them, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura have convinced him to join in and he finds himself nervously sitting in the middle of the backseat of Lance’s car. 

But no matter how anxious he is, he reckons he’s feeling a lot better than Pidge who is sitting with her arms folded over her chest. 

“I don’t know why I have to come along. I don’t even drink.”

“We needed a designated driver,” Allura says.

“So, that’s kind of the point,” Hunk adds.

“Also, we gave you fifty bucks,” Lance reminds.

“I should have held out for a hundred,” Pidge mutters.

“Too late,” Lance chirps. “You’ll have fun when you get there.”

“Yeah, because you’re buying me fries.”

Keith can’t help but laugh. At least she’s getting her time’s worth. 

The bar isn’t like the ones in his memories, the shady ones he’s been to in Texas with a much older average patron. It’s ten minutes from campus and it shows, there are undergraduates littering the place. It’s a calm, chill atmosphere. Not really what Keith expected of a college bar, but he’s not complaining. He’ll take this over his wildly exaggerated expectation of spring break in Palm Beach. 

Keith is drawn to the pool table in the corner of the bar. It’s been a long time since he’s played, but he remembers enjoying it. Maybe because he remembers winning. 

Keith jumps when there’s something freezing and wet against his cheek. He turns and glares at Lance who is giving him a shit-eating grin and handing him a beer.

“You are so annoying,” Keith says, swiping it from his hands. 

“Right back at you!” Lance says without missing a beat. He gestures over to the pool table, “You wanna play?”

“You prepared to lose?” Keith asks.

“Oh, in your dreams buddy,” Lance grabs a pool cue and throws one over to him.

“You know,” Hunk says, “Lance is actually really good at pool.” 

“... And he’s an insufferable winner,” Pidge adds. 

“I’m not worried.”

And yet fifteen minutes pass and it’s clear that he’s taking this way too seriously. Hunk, Pidge, and Allura have gone from casual spectators to referees. Keith is so invested in the game that it feels like his life is on the line.

There’s also the matter of the twenty bucks he wagered a few minutes ago.

He leans over the table and lines up his shot, moving the cue back and forth in his hands nervously.

“Come on, Keith,” Lance says playfully, “I don’t want to wait all night to cash in.”

“Who says you’re going to win?”

Keith takes his shot, holding his breath as the ball bounces against the side and misses the pocket by a quarter of a millimeter. He groans, throwing his head back and running a hand through his hair. Lance lets out a triumphant laugh.

“That twenty bucks is mine!”

“You still have to make the shot,” Pidge points out.

“Ah, yes,” Allura nods, “you haven’t lost yet.”

Keith is positive that he’ll make the shot. Lance is, in fact, very good at pool. Keith remembers that he was a good player, but the reason this is a close game is because of his luck and aptitude for any sport if this even qualified as one. Lance seems like he knows what he’s doing, making shots that Keith would only attempt if he were desperate. He’s probably played pool more times than he has.

“Oh,” Lance looks Keith straight in the eye and smirks, “I’ll make the shot.”

Keith’s cheeks heat and he looks away a moment, only to look back to see Lance make his shot. It looks effortless the way Lance lines up his shot and takes it. He sends the ball on a clear path and right into the corner pocket.

“Ha!” Lance throws his hands into the air excitedly.

Hunk places a consoling hand on Keith’s shoulder as Lance laughs and does a little dance. Keith expects to feel a little mad, frustrated, or annoyed, but he doesn’t. Seeing Lance elated and acting a little silly has him laughing and letting out a breathy chuckle. 

It dawns on him that it’s the first time in a long time that he’s having fun with people his own age.

“Good game,” Lance says, as Keith reluctantly hands over the crisp twenty dollar bill.

“You’re just saying that because you won,” he says with a laugh.

“Maybe,” the grin still hasn’t faded from his face. His expression is so bright that Keith can’t bring himself to look away. “But… to show you how much of a good sport I am, I’ll buy the next round. What do you feel like?”

Keith shakes his head with a laugh, “Surprise me.”

Lance smile is still the brightest thing Keith has ever seen, “You got it.” 

He takes the rest of the group’s orders and heads over to the bar counter. 

“Sorry you lost,” Hunk says kindly.

“We did warn you,” Pidge says, popping a fry into her mouth.

“Nah,” he says, “I don’t mind.” He’s always been fiercely competitive and of the opinion that a game doesn’t matter unless you win, but he doesn’t regret the game or Lance’s reaction. 

Keith chats with Hunk, Pidge, and Allura for a minutes before he notices that Lance is taking a long time with the drinks. He leaves Allura to explain what bars are like in her country to go find him. 

When Keith reaches the bar, he finds Lance leaning against the counter and talking idly with a pretty girl. She's twirling a strand of her long hair around her finger as she chats with him. Keith shouldn't be surprised, after all, he's heard what Lance gets up to on the other side of the dorm walls and Lance's friends have made it clear that he'll hit on nearly anything that moves. Keith almost decides to turn around and head back to where Hunk, Pidge, and Allura are relaxing on the other side of the bar when a guy approaches them. 

The guy that approaches Lance and the girl is clearly bad news and Keith isn't just saying that because he looks twice that girl's height and weight. It's the look of anger on his face that roots Keith's feet to the ground. Something is about to go wrong and he knows it.

"What are you doing here?" he asks her. Her entire body tenses and Keith realizes that his intuition was a little off. Something is already wrong and he can see in Lance's face that he knows it too.

"I'm out with my friends," the woman says, "I can be out with my friends."

“This is my bar,” the guy says, “why don’t you leave?”

“It’s not your bar. I can’t just avoid every place we used to go together.”

“She’s right,” Lance says, with an easiness that would have sounded harsh had it come from Keith’s mouth, “she’s not bothering you. Why don’t you go back to what you’re doing and we’ll stay over here? We can all have a good night.”

"Who asked you?" the guy snaps. He moves to grab to the girl by the arm, but Lance intervenes.

"Hey! C'mon, man, don't do that!"

"Fuck off!" The man pushes Lance so hard that he tumbles back a few steps, knocking into Keith who he blinks at in surprise. He returns his attention to the girl and fixes a tight grip on her upper arm. "Get out of here!"

"Stop it! You're always such an ass when you drink!"

Lance shows no signs of backing off. He pries the guy’s hand off of her and glares up, a good foot, at him. 

“Don’t touch her like that.”

“Who are you to tell me what to do?” Just like that, the guy’s rage redirects to Lance. He steps closer, but Lance’s feet stay planted despite their stark size difference. 

“You don’t touch people like that.”

The guy’s hand shoots out grabbing the front of Lance’s shirt and pushes him back against the bar with a loud thud. He pushes Lance into the bar so roughly that his back digs into it, making him wince. By now, they’ve gathered the attention of the rest of the bar. A couple of guys are trying to talk him down, but his fury doesn’t quell. He continues to hold Lance at the uncomfortable, painful position against the bar.

Now Keith is having a hard time reigning in his anger.

“Let go.”

The guy doesn’t even turn to acknowledge him.

“Who’s that? Your boyfriend? Can’t finish your own fight?” He drags Lance forward and then back into the bar. 

Lance’s pained groan dissolves every bit of Keith’s self-control. Keith shoves him so hard that he loses his grip on Lance, which solves one problem and creates a new one. He’s now the third person that the guy is picking a fight with. Keith prepares himself to be shoved back. Just assessing the man’s height and weight, it’s probably the only reason that he’s still standing after. 

The crowd around them has formed a dense circle. The chatter around them nearly drowns out Allura and Hunk’s worried sentiments. Somewhere among the noise, he can hear the bartender threatening to kick them out, but things are too escalated to stop now.

The man moves to grab him, but Keith throws a punch quicker. The man’s hard face hurts his hand, but not nearly as the punch he retaliates with. It almost knocks him off his feet and he feels blood welling in his mouth. He doesn’t let himself take a moment, he grabs the guy’s collar and throws another punch. This seems to disorient the other man and Keith would take advantage of it, but suddenly there are strong arms under his, holding him back. The vulnerable position makes him panic before he realizes that the guy’s friends are holding him back.

“I’m good, I’m good,” he grumbles after the second he takes to catch his breath and Hunk releases him.

“That looks really bad,” Allura says, eyebrows pinched together in concern as she covers her mouth with her fingers.

Then Keith feels a hand on his arms, turning him to face Lance who has a troubled expression on his face. 

“Shit,” Lance whispers and Keith wonders how bad his face looks right now. It certainly feels like he looks terrible. He can feel a little wetness on his throbbing cheek, he’s not surprised to learn that the punch broke his skin. Lance’s hand moves to touch his cheek, but it halts when the bartender’s voice cuts through the commotion. 

“Get out of here!” he snaps. The group looks towards the offending guy, watching as his friends begin to haul him towards the door. “Hey,” the bartender turns to them and points to the door, “you too!”

“What?” Lance asks indignantly. “That guy started it.”

“Don’t think I didn’t see your friend throw the first punch!”

“He didn’t have a choice!” Pidge pipes up.

“I don’t care. I’m not having this shit go down in my bar!”

Lance looks like he’s ready to fight this further, but truth be told, Keith is tired. Tired and in pain. He wouldn’t mind leaving right now. He places his hand on Lance’s shoulder, shaking his head. 

“Let’s just go.”

“I’m really sorry,” the girl Lance talked with earlier says on their way out.

Keith looks her in the eye, “Don’t apologize for him. Ever.” Stunned, the girl nods and they exit the bar.

Keith spits some of the blood in his mouth onto the concrete.

“Ew,” Hunk mumbles.

“Please tell me that there are no teeth on the floor,” Allura adds, looking up to avoid it.

“I’m not missing any.” But Keith runs his tongue over his teeth just to be sure. 

“Y’know, no offense,” Pidge begins, “but why am I not surprised that the first time we take you out, you get into a bar fight?”

Keith snorts, “Because you’re smart.”

“Man, should we take you to a hospital or something?” Hunk asks, inspecting his face. Keith is getting scared to look in a mirror. His face hurts, but not in a horribly disfigured sort of way.

“Yeah? What if you have a concussion or something?” Lance asks. “What if you just go to sleep and die?”

"I didn't hurt my head, Lance."

"I don't know..." Lance crosses his hands over his chest. “It feels wrong to just take you back to the dorms... I don't even have bandaids."

"I'll be fine," Keith waves his hand and the five of them pile into the car with Pidge at the wheel. It isn't until he's sitting down that he realizes that his face really hurts and he doesn't actually want to be back on campus. "Wait, actually, can we go somewhere first?"

Keith gives directions to Pidge, who's fulfilling her designated driver duties like a champ. It's a quick drive to Shiro's apartment and they exit the car to follow Keith to the front door. 

"Who's apartment are we at?" Lance asks as Keith raps on the door. 

"Shiro's. He's like my brother."

"Wait, wait, wait. Shiro? Like, Professor of Astrophysics Shiro? He's your brother?"

"Uh, basically."

"He's like my hero!" The door opens and Lance closes his mouth as fast as he can. 

Shiro just blinks at first, taking in the sight of five undergrads before taking a look at Keith's face and sighing. He pinches the bridge of his nose with his fingers. He steps aside and gestures to his apartment, motioning for them to enter.

"How often do you get into bar fights that he's this calm?" Allura asks.

"You got into a bar fight?" Shiro asked, looking back at him at him with wide eyes.

Keith gives Allura a look, "Not as often as you'd think."

"In his defense, the guy was a jerk," Pidge says. 

"He can't just go around punching people that are jerks."

"But maybe the world would be a better place," Keith says, plopping down on his couch. The other four stood awkwardly in his living room until Shiro chuckled and told them to get comfortable as he got the medical kit.

"I thought you put fighting behind you," Shiro says when he returns with some disinfectant and bandages. Keith hates it when Shiro sounds disappointed in him, he just looks down as Shiro cleans his wound. 

Lance, Hunk, Pidge, and Allura look at each other and then they all start talking at one time. They each try to explain the events that went down at the bar as urgently as they can. Shiro is so caught off guard that he freezes, bandage hovering a centimeters over Keith's face. When they finally stop talking and stare at Shiro expectantly, Shiro can't help but let out a small laugh.

"Alright, alright. I won't give him a hard time. Even though I'd prefer if you stayed out of trouble." Shiro ruffles Keith's hair and then fetches him an ice pack to hold against his cheek. "You look very familiar," Shiro says to Pidge, "did you take one of my classes?"

"Nah," Pidge smiles, "You just know my Dad and my brother, they work in your department. The Holts?"

"Ah, I’ve worked with both of them so much that I’m surprised we haven’t met yet. Katie, right?”

“Yeah, but I go by Pidge.”

“Nice to finally meet you.” 

Shiro also introduces himself to Lance, Hunk, and Allura. He makes himself a good host. He brings out drinks and little snacks and Keith is a little tempted to make fun of him and his new friends who he’s never seen quite this polite. It’s almost weird to see them with Shiro. Keith has lived with Shiro for years, but he’s never brought home friends. He wonders if this is what his high school years would have been like.

“Ah,” Hunk looks at the clock after a bit of chatting, “maybe we should get back to campus?”

“You’re going back to campus at this time?” Shiro asks. “Weren’t you all just at a bar?”

“We have a designated driver,” Lance says, gesturing to Pidge. The other five look at Pidge who’s on the loveseat with Allura, her eyes are closed and her head is resting on Allura’s shoulder. “Wow. That little gremlin gets an average of, like, two and a half hours of sleep per day and when we actually need her past midnight she’s asleep.”

“I won’t tell her you called her a gremlin,” Allura chuckles.

“But I will,” Keith grins.

“Why don’t you all stay here tonight? Allura and Pidge can take the spare bedroom and you three can decide amongst yourselves who takes the couch and who takes the air mattress.”

“Thanks, Shiro,” Keith says.

Allura wakes Pidge who grumbles as she gets to her feet and heads to the spare bedroom. Shiro and Keith set up the air mattress as Lance and Hunk play rock-paper-scissors for the other space on the air mattress. Keith offers to sleep on the couch, explaining that he doesn’t want to sleep with Shiro who moves too much, but they insist that with his “injuries” that he should be sleeping somewhere more comfortable. When Shiro and Keith finish bringing in blankets and pillows for them, Keith stops to stare at Lance who is lounging on the mattress and Hunk who’s playing on his phone on the couch.

Looks like Hunk lost. 

That means that he’s sleeping on the air mattress with Lance. 

Shiro tells them “good night” and that they shouldn’t take off early in the morning because he’ll treat them to breakfast before he retires to bed.

Tentatively, Keith eases into bed with Lance. He thinks it’s weird that he’s in bed with the same person that he heard rocking the bed in the other room against their shared wall. His cheeks heat as he relives the memory. One of these days, he’s going to have to say something.

Next to him, Lance shifts around to face him.

“You know,” Lance begins to whisper and waits for Keith to turn to look at him through the nighttime darkness, “I appreciate you stepping in at the bar.” Keith doesn’t know what to say and Hunk’s quiet snoring fills the silence. Lance decides to continue, “It’s not every day that someone throws a punch for me.”

Keith fumbles over his words to get out a hushed: “I didn’t punch him for you.”

“You totally did,” Lance whispers, his teeth showing as he grins. “We’re friends now,” Keith can make out his shrug even in the darkness, “get over it.” 

A grin spreads over Keith’s face, expression softening when one of Lance’s hands come up to gently touch the skin around the bandage. Lance’s fingertips are so cool against his warm skin that it feels nice. Keith doesn’t even realize that he’s holding his breath until he runs out of air and he has to regulate his breathing.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“I’ve had worse,” Keith says cooly. 

Lance rolls his eyes, “Of course you have.”

Keith shrugs, “I got into a lot of fights after my Dad died.” 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lance says. “When did he die?”

Keith tells him and then he keeps telling him things. Keith has never been one to talk about himself, but Lance asks him questions and listens attentively to each of his words. Keith can seem to catch them as they tumble out. In hushed tones, he tells Lance about his father and how hard it was after he died on duty as a firefighter. He tells him how Shiro basically adopted him, how he’s like the brother he never had. How Shiro helped him find his mother, about the reasons his mother left when he was a baby. How they reconnected and talked for a year. About his decision to take a year off from school after his mother invited him to live with her when she realized that not knowing his history was eating him up. 

His words come out like they were silly things, as if these important, emotional, and character-shaping events in his life were his favorite flavor of ice cream. 

Lance whispers little things in between, nothing particularly significant, but they make Keith laugh and want to talk more. There’s only a small part of him that gets anxious and scared he’s oversharing, but every time Lance opens his mouth Keith is calmed.

Keith admits that he misses his mom, which feels strange because he’s known her for such a short period of time. Lance tells him that it’s normal. That he misses his family too and that he talks to his mom every day. He talks about his nieces and nephew and how he adores them and also how sad he is that he’s so far away and missing so much of their lives. 

Keith takes everything Lance says in. He’s enthralled by the mundane, but silly sibling antics that Lance and his sisters went through as they grew up. They’re so wrapped up in their own world, leaning into each other, faces only inches apart as they talk about anything and everything as the rest of their friends are fast asleep.

The only pause they have is when they hear Shiro open the door to his bedroom and enter the kitchen for a glass of water. They go completely silent, swallowing laughter as Shiro carries out his short venture to the kitchen. They finally dissolve in giggles when they hear the door shut behind him. Pretending like your sleeping shouldn’t be this funny, but with Lance it’s practically hijinks. 

Keith isn’t exactly sure when they drift off, but the last thing he remembers are hints of the sun shining through the windows and Lance’s smiling face. 

He doesn’t wake up long after he falls asleep. Lance is curled up to his side. His forehead rests on his shoulder and his arms are thrown over him. The feeling of his soft hair tickling his face refuses to let Keith move despite his minor discomfort. The thought of how easy it would be to turn his head and press a kiss to Lance’s forehead sticks in his mind. 

Easily, Keith falls right back to sleep.

* * *

Things between Keith and Lance change after the night they all spent at Shiro’s, Keith thinks as he’s hanging out with them.

It’s big and little things.

It’s in the way that Lance starts little competitions with him that are no longer hostile. Or, how he invites Keith everywhere he and his friends go, whether that’s the library or little nighttime trips to the convenience store. 

It’s definitely in the warm feeling Keith gets in the pit of his stomach when Lance smiles at him, like now as he tries to convince him to do a face mask with the rest of them.

The five of them are relaxing now that the week’s classes are over and Keith and Lance are lounging on the floor next to Hunk’s bed.

“It’s good for your pores!” Lance insists. 

“I don’t care about my pores,” Keith laughs. “You guys look ridiculous.”

“Don’t judge man,” Hunk says, “when you take this off, your face will be as soft as a baby’s bum.”

“My face is already that soft, but it feels nice!” Pidge says.

“That’s because you are a baby, Pidge,” Allura chuckles as she snaps a quick silly photo of herself in the thick green mask.

“Eighteen is not a baby,” Pidge argues, a battle even she knows is futile. 

“Also,” Lance pretends to inspect his face, “maybe you should worry about your pores.”

“Hey!” Keith laughs, elbowing him lightly in the ribs.

“I’m just saying!”

“Fine!” Keith relents with a smile.

Keith expects to put it on for himself, but when Lance fetches the small pot of the mask, he dips his fingers in it and carefully smears it on his cheek. His entire body freezes out of surprise. Lance’s face is so close to his as he dutifully applies the mask. 

Keith has never been this panicked over someone being this close to him and there are a thousand questions running through his mind.

Does his breath smell? He took a shower literally an hour before coming to Hunk’s room, but what if he doesn’t smell good? Does Lance really think his mullet’s stupid? Are his pores actually really bad?

“There!” Lance grins when he’s finished, snapping Keith out of the panicked spiral.

“Can we watch the movie now?” Pidge asks.

“What are we watching?” Allura asks.

“The new Star Wars movie is out now!” Pidge says excitedly. 

“Oh, is Star Wars good?”

Everyone stops what they’re doing to look at him.

“What do you mean is Star Wars good?” Pidge asks incredulously.

“Do you mean is the newest movie good?” Hunk asks.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never watched Star Wars,” Allura says.

“I’ve watched it,” Keith says defensively. “Just when I was really young.” Under the scrutiny of their stares he feels like he needs to explain more. “I mean, I’ve watched them with Shiro before, I just… fell asleep for most of it.”

“You fell asleep during Star Wars?” Pidge asks, only a couple of notches down from screaming.

“Oh my God, you fell asleep during my favorite movie series,” Lance says, switching on the television. “We’re watching it from the beginning! Right now.”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” he mutters. 

“Just let it happen,” Hunk tells him. “Lance and Pidge won’t let you live it down.”

Keith shakes his head and leans back as the movie starts. Lance settles right next to him on the floor, so close that their fingers and legs brush together, but neither of them move to avoid touching the other. Out of the corner of his eye he sees how enraptured Lance is with the screen. 

Silently, Keith decides that if this is Lance’s favorite movie series, then he wants to watch it too.

It’s another thing that’s changed, but Keith has no complaints.

* * *

It’s a week after they get through the first two movies that Keith spots a little table selling tickets on campus to a showing of the Star Wars prequel trilogy on his way home from a night run to the gym. 

He doesn’t even register going up and buying tickets. It’s not until he leaves that he realizes that he’s only bought one for him and Lance rather than the whole group.

Asking Lance to go with him would be weird, he thinks.

Or would it?

It’s not like he and Lance are at each other’s throats anymore. Lance doesn’t scoff every time he sees him now. Lance invites him to go places with him. 

It could just be Keith’s imagination, but every time they’re together Lance takes the opportunity to be next to him. Even when they touch or catch each other looking at the other, he doesn’t withdraw or averts his gaze. He smiles at him.

Keith smiles thinking about him, as he enters his dorm room.

No, it wouldn’t be weird to invite him to the marathon. 

Keith pulls out his phone, fingers hovering over the keyboard. He’s never asked anyone out before. It should be simple, shouldn’t it? He groans, he’s never been the type to overthink things. He’s always leaned towards impulsive, but it’s so different with Lance.

Keith jumps suddenly when he hears a thump against his wall so loud and jarring that he nearly drops his phone. He turns to glare at the origin of the sound, but then his anger falters as he realizes what the sound is. As the sound picks up, Keith’s phone lowers to his side.

He’s by himself, but his embarrassment is so palpable that he wishes he’d disappear from view. 

It’s been so long since he heard evidence of Lance’s late night adventures that he thought—hoped—that they stopped. Every sound filtering through the wall makes Keith feel worse and worse. All he can think about is Lance and the handsome man that he saw weeks ago, but for all he knows it could be someone completely different. 

It doesn’t matter. 

Right now, he’s with someone else on the other side of the wall and it’s eating him up inside.

He stays rooted in place before he decides that he’s had enough. He grabs his bag and shoves his books and laptop into it and storms out of the dorm. 

Shiro doesn’t question it when Keith shows up in front of his door. He welcomes him in as he always does, no questions asked. It’s almost like Keith is back in high school when he dumps his bag next to the couch and flops down on it. Keith tells himself that he’ll start studying soon, but an hour passes and he lays on Shiro’s couch watching whatever is on the television with little interest.

“So,” Shiro begins, placing a glass of water on the coffee table for Keith, “are you going to tell me why you’re sulking on my couch? Or, are you just going to do that for the rest of the night?”

“I’m not sulking,” Keith sulks. 

Shiro arches an eyebrow.

“Did someone confiscate your knife?”

“Why is that your first guess?” Keith grumbles. 

“Because it’s actually happened before? And then you were mad for a whole week?”

“I didn’t know that knives were against the rules!”

Shiro opens his mouth to argue, but sighs instead. He’s not going to rehash that particular battle tonight. 

“Does…” Shiro treads carefully, “this have anything to do with Lance?”

Keith bolts straight up, the closest he’s been to vertical in the last hour. “No! Why would you even say that?”

Keith only realizes how unconvincing he is when he gets a look at Shiro’s wide eyes and raised brows. His cheeks color when Shiro lets out a little laugh, shaking his head.

“Are we going to pretend like I didn’t wake up in the middle of the night to hear you two talking and giggling to each other?”

“We were not giggling-”

“Or that you two were curled up together on the air mattress when I woke up in the morning?”

“We were not-”

“Or that you smiled at him for an hour straight while you two ate breakfast?”

“Are you done?” Keith asks, dropping his head back onto the couch cushions and staring at the ceiling. “I get it, you know I have a crush on him.”

“That much was obvious,” Shiro says. “What I want to know is why you’re upset. It seemed like things were going well with you two.”

Keith’s mind wanders back to him standing in his room alone, stupidly holding those tickets. He remembers the handsome man that he saw walking out of Lance’s room decorated with love bites. He groans for the millionth time that night and covers his face with his forearm.

“He’s dating someone…”

“What?” Shiro seems genuinely surprised. “I wouldn’t have thought that from the way he was acting.”

“I’m pretty sure… He was just being nice.”

“Pretty sure? You don’t know? Maybe you should talk to him about it, get things straight?”

“No, Shiro,” Keith says looking at him. “We live next to each other. I… heard them.”

“What do you mean you...? Oh. Oh!”

Keith rolls to his side to face the couch as Shiro flounders to say something to him. He’s given Keith countless advice in the years that they’ve known each other, but never about someone he’s liked. 

“I still think you should talk to him. Maybe there’s something you’re missing?”

“It seems pretty obvious to me. I don’t want to talk about this anymore, Shiro.”

Shiro sighs, “Alright, whatever you want.” He stands up, giving Keith’s shoulder a squeeze before leaving the room. 

The ache in Keith’s chest makes him immobile, he doesn’t retire to the guest bedroom. He spends the night on Shiro’s couch thinking about the Star Wars tickets he’ll have to pawn off to someone or throw out. He pushes the memories of the night they spent together a few feet away out of his mind. 

He stays that way for the entire night and most of the morning. He doesn’t even entertain Shiro’s request to grab breakfast and only nibbles at the toast that he places in front of him. If not for his midday class that requires attendance, Keith would stay there for the rest of the day. Even if Shiro can’t cheer him up, there’s something nice about being around someone that cares about you rather than alone in his dorm.

Still, Keith’s not willing to get his grade marked down for not showing up. 

Back at his dorm Keith is relieved to find that it's relatively quiet again. The only sounds that he can discern are the heavy footsteps of the dorms above him and the distant sound of chatter and laughter. He wishes that it provided any sort of relief, but the heavy, draining ache he feels all the way to the tips of his fingers remains.

He eyes the pair of tickets that he bought last night on his desk. He picks them up and frowns down at them. He doesn't need them anymore, but there's something repelling about giving them to someone else. The rational part of him knows that he doesn't need to explain that he's giving away tickets because he heard his crush having wall-banging sex next door.

But he’d know.

He crumples the tickets in his palm and tosses them in the trash.

He heads for the door, he still has an hour and a half before his class, but he doesn't want to spend it here. He pauses just as he reaches for the door knob and curses under his breath. He turns on his heel and fishes the tickets out of the mostly empty trash can.

As he's deciding what to do, there's a knock at his door. He's not expecting anyone, he never is. His first guess is the RA, probably coming to doing the routine room checks or sign some room agreement form. 

He doesn’t expect Lance to be on the other side of the door. The way Lance smiles when he first lays eyes on him is bright and deceptive. Keith has to look away, his eyes settling on the two coffee cups in Lance's hands.

“Hey, man,” Lance says, “I know you have a class soon but since we have a test coming up, I thought maybe we could hit the library together. Hunk, Pidge, and Allura are busy now, so it'd just be us. I think we can manage going an hour without killing each other.”

His smile is so soft and warm that Keith nearly says “yes.” He has to bury the desire.

“Actually, I was just going to the gym,” Keith lies.

Lance’s smile falters. Keith doesn't miss the quick look Lance gives him, noticing how he's still in a leather jacket and jeans. It's not really workout ready. 

Guilt tugs at his chest now too.

“Um, okay,” Lance seems hurt, but still holds out one of the cups for him. “You can have this, if you want. I didn't know your order so I just brought it black. I hope that's okay.” The look on Lance's face makes Keith afraid to refuse.

“Thanks.”

“I guess, I’ll see you in class?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay… Bye.”

“Bye.”

Keith shuts the door and immediately presses his forehead to it.

“Fuck.”

* * *

Even Keith’s guilt about turning Lance’s offer to study with him down isn’t enough for him to stop avoiding him. Keith has spent the majority of his undergraduate career alone, but he’s never really felt lonely until now. 

Avoiding Lance is bad on it’s own. He misses his terrible jokes, his competitiveness, and his smile. He misses being close to him. He just misses Lance.

But avoiding him also means avoiding his new friends. 

It means that he doesn’t get to try any of Hunks new recipes or experience his kindness and inclusion. He misses out on the big bear hugs that he never knew he needed that drain him of anxiety.

He doesn’t get to be around to hear Pidge’s snark. He isn’t able to hear her mad ramblings about whatever new technological advancement she’s researched. He never understands half of it, but he still remembers them with fondness. 

Allura’s accent isn’t something he thought he’d miss, but he does. He misses how nice she is and her unexpected silliness. It’s strange not hearing her diplomatic thoughts and refreshing opinions.

It doesn’t help that they all text him. They ask him if he’s okay or if he wants to go to the movies or get coffee. He politely declines. He tells them that he’s just busy and focusing on studying.

Then, Lance texts him and Keith nearly crumbles.

He stares at for minutes when he first gets it.

“Did I do something wrong?” It reads.

Keith is sure that this is the guiltiest he’s ever felt.

“No,” he sends back, “I’m just busy. School is rough.”

“Okay.” Lance sends back. “Don’t stress too much. We’re here for you if you need us.” The words are followed by a smiley face emoji.

Keith sends one back even though he’s certainly not smiling.

* * *

Keith expects it to get easier as the days go on but as a week and a half passes, he just feels worse. He keeps busy to run from the unpleasant feeling. He goes to the gym, library, and Shiro’s to fill every bit of time he has. His loneliness is faster though, catching up with him in every moment that he’s not preoccupied.

Then, there are the more obvious reminders. Like now, as Keith attempts to study, he can hear laughter next door. The sounds quickly dissolve into something more lewd. He does his best to ignore it, blasting loud music through his headphones and rereading the same paragraph of his textbook a hundred times. 

Keith buries his face in his hands. He hates this so much, but he knows that there’s nothing that he can do except pack his things and head to Shiro’s. That’s exactly what he does, jamming a set of clothes into his bag along with some of his things.

He just wants to get out of there as fast as he can. He slams the door behind him and in his haste he nearly crashes into Lance on his way out.

Wait. 

What?

Keith practically skids to a stop, nearly falling over himself. He turns around so fast that he should probably get checked for whiplash.

Lance is standing in the hallway, giving him a weak smile before moving to enter his dorm. 

If he’s out here, then who’s…?

Keith is so stupid. They live in dorms.

Lance has a roommate.

Keith is so busy having this revelation that he doesn’t even notice that Lance is pulling his key out of his bag and moving to open the room to his door. Keith crosses the space between them as fast as he can and grabs him by the forearm.

“You… you don’t want to go in there.”

Lance blinks at him, “What do you mean? I gotta get my laptop before I head to the library.”

“No, you really don’t want to go in there,” Keith repeats.

“What? But I need to-“ Lance begins to protest, but his next word is swallowed by the sound of a deep moan. They look at each other, cheeks turning red and hot. “Oh.” They stand that way for a moment until Lance looks down at Keith’s hand that is still on his arm. Keith drops it and they stand in silence for a moment until Lance breaks it easily. “I can’t believe that guy! He kicks me out of the dorm all of the time! Can you believe that he sexiled me the night before the first day of classes?”

As Lance talks, Keith feels sillier and sillier. He’s spent the last few days sulking over nothing. Shiro was right, he should have just talked to him.

“I mean, that’s bad enough, right?” Lance continues, throwing up his hands. “What? He can’t even text me to let me know his boyfriend is over? What if you weren’t here? I would’ve just walked in on them! And what am I supposed to do about my laptop? I have to work on a paper! … Why are you looking at me like that?” 

Keith doesn’t realize that he’s been staring at him with a soft, exasperated smile through his rant. He feels ridiculous, but any bit of embarrassment is overshadowed by massive relief. 

Keith shakes his head, “It’s just good to see you.”

Lance’s cheeks color. “That’s surprising to hear.”

“Why?”

“You’ve been avoiding me for the last ten days.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“You totally have, man. What’s going on?” Lance’s tone remains easy and airy, but Keith can still detect the nervousness.

“Um…” 

The sound of another moan and the bed rocking into the wall near them makes them tense and flush. For once, Keith is grateful for the racket coming from Lance's room. After all, Keith doesn't know how to tell Lance that he’s fallen for him and then got extremely jealous because of his roommate when he could have just talked to him about it.

“Maybe we should…?”

“Get something to drink and pretend that none of this ever happened?”

Keith nods vigorously and they rush out of the building. They stop at the campus’ cafeteria nearby before walking through the campus. It’s quiet for once, being after midnight. There are still students heading home or to the library, but they’re the only ones wandering around. 

They chat about little things as they walk, it’s mostly Lance filling him in on the little things that he’s missed with their friends. Pidge corrected a professor in the middle of a lecture because he was being a douche, Hunk created a new recipe which he has to try, and Allura won a women in S.T.E.M. award. Keith drinks it up, missing all of them even for the short amount of time he spent without them. It’s also really easy to pay attention to Lance who looks like he’s glowing under the gentle, warm light of the scattered street lamps.

“So, you gonna tell me why you were avoiding me?” Lance brings up again.

“I wasn’t avoiding you,” Keith lies.

“Oh, come on,” Lance elbows him gently and Keith returns it, drawing them into a small play fight in the middle of campus. They stop when Lance almost knocks Keith’s drink to the floor. “Are you trying to tell me,” Lance says, pausing their walk, “that you were going to the gym in jeans and that ridiculous cropped jacket?”

“I… didn’t change… yet. Wait, ridiculous?”

“First of all, you’re a terrible liar. Second, your fashion choices deserve their own discussion.”

Keith lets out a breathy laugh and shakes his head, but by the time he’s done, Lance is still looking at him for an explanation. Keith’s heart thumps in his chest, no reasonable excuses pop into his head. He’s afraid if he tries to explain that everything will come tumbling out.

“I thought it was you on the other side of the wall,” Keith confesses finally, after what feels like minutes of Lance staring at him.

“What?” Lance laughs. “Why didn’t you just, like, call me out on it if you thought it was me? We’ve hung out enough for you to have said something!”

Keith covers his face with his hand as he mutters, “It just sucked thinking that it was you next door and seeing your boyfriend, or your roommate’s boyfriend… I guess he could be your roommate too, actually...” His rambling stops and Keith has to press his lips together in a thin line to keep from embarrassing himself any further. Keith lowers his hand from his face to watch Lance look at him. His surprised expression bursts into laughter. 

“Oh my God,” Lance breathes through it. “You like me!” Keith cheeks heat as Lance continues to laugh so hard that he doubles over. He doesn’t find it nearly as amusing.

“It’s that funny that I like you?”

Lance’s laughter finally tapers off when he realizes that Keith seems hurt.

“No,” he says, the mirth in his expression yielding for a more tentative one. He looks away for a second and wipes at the tip of his nose with his thumb. “Because, uh, I like you too.”

“Wait, what?”

“I like you too,” Lance mutters, quicker and softer than the first time.

Keith cracks a smile and steps closer to him, “What was that? Couldn’t hear you.”

“Hey!” Lance protests. “We’re making fun of you here! Plus,” Lance matches Keith’s step closer, shrinking the distance between them, “I’ve been flirting with you since the night at the bar. Thanks for noticing, by the way.”

The thought of Lance intentionally flirting with him makes him feel light and elated, like he doesn’t weigh anything. 

“Oh? Maybe you’re not that good at it then,” Keith quips, a smirk tugging at his lips. In hindsight, without the cloudiness of his misunderstanding, Lance was actually good at flirting. He wouldn’t be admitting that any time soon. 

“Excuse me,” Lance wraps his arms around Keith’s neck and, for a moment, his mind short circuits, “who was the one sulking because he thought I had a boyfriend?”

“Well,” Keith’s voice drops a little lower, eyes flickering from Lance’s eyes to his lips, “I know now.”

“Hm…” Lance feigns hesitancy, “It’s a little late, but I’ll take partial credit.” 

Lance places a soft kiss on Keith’s smile. For a beat, Keith doesn’t know what to do with his hands, letting them hover awkwardly in the air before settling them down on his hips, and then, finally, wrapping them around his waist to draw him as close as possible.

It makes Keith just a bit self-conscious when it becomes apparent that Lance has much more experience than he does, but it crumbles quickly when he realizes that Lance doesn’t seem to mind. Lance easily takes the lead laughing softly when he pulls away for air just to quickly return to him again. 

When Lance pulls away and rests his forehead on Keith’s, he’s dazed and unsure that he can form any coherent sentences.

“You know, Lance hums, “your pores are looking kind of big…”

“Shut up…” Keith laughs before he suddenly remembers something. Wait, what are you going to do tonight? Your room is… occupied. I don’t think Shiro would mind if you crashed at his with me tonight.”

“Well, I normally crash at Hunk or Pidge’s, but,” Lance’s devilish smile makes Keith worry, “I think I have a better idea.”

* * *

Keith follows the sound of laughter to the common room in Pidge’s dorm where he finds his friends lounging on the couch as Lance animatedly tells a story. When he comes up behind him, the other three go mysteriously silent.

Not suspicious at all.

Lance tilts his head back to look at him upside down. 

“Hey, Keith!” His voice is so saccharine it’s practically sticky.

He sighs as he sits down next to him, “You’re going to make me ask?”

“You thought Lance was making a sexy racket next door?” Allura is the first one who cracks with a laugh.

“You told them?” He’s exasperated, but not surprised.

“They had a right to know why you were avoiding them!”

“I was avoiding you.”

“To be honest, that’s kind of on you,” Pidge snorts. “You thought Lance was anything but a virgin? Unrealistic.”

“Hey! Don’t slander me like that.”

“So, did you end up telling your roommate to knock it off?” Hunk asks.

“No, but we made some noise of our own,” Lance says.

“Lance!”

“Gross!”

“Too much information, man!”

Keith and Lance’s cheeks heat.

“No!” Lance waves his hands in front of him. “They were still going at it when we got to his dorm, so we blasted the sound of nails on a chalkboard.”

“And got in trouble with the RA,” Keith adds.

“But they stopped!”

Keith shakes his head, “Whatever. You ready to go to the marathon? We gotta leave soon.”

“Aw, Keith, you didn’t get us tickets?” Pidge teases.

“Not cool!” Hunk joins in.

“We’ll just sit around doing nothing then…”

“Sounds good to me!” Lance’s hand slips into his. “I’m gonna go see Star Wars with my boyfriend.”

Keith shakes his head and laughs as the other three playfully boo them out of the room.

Huh.

Boyfriend.

Keith likes the sound of that.

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](http://www.ayebibs.tumblr.com)


End file.
